Recovery of Orthopaedics Companies Remains Slow

In a daily letter from Canaccord Genuity, analysts reiterated a statement made last summer about the end of the glory days in orthopaedics. That is not to say that things won’t get better, but don’t expect to see improvements until the economy as a whole recovers.

Three Manufacturers Who Look Good:

• China Kangui Holdings. The China-based orthopaedics company continues to grow through its strong product pipeline.
• NuVasive. The acquisition of Impulse Medical could help strengthen NuVasive’s business strategy.
• OrthoFix. The company already surpassed analyst revenue expectations for Q4 2011.

Two Takeaways from the Canaccord Analysts:

• The outlook for industry recovery looks cautious at best. The trends that we saw throughout last year—dropping procedure volumes and pricing pressures—aren’t going anywhere.
• “Stabilization” is the buzzword in the spine segment. “The ground rules of the spine industry have changed over the past 12-19 months with the government (through FDA and CMS) demanding more data and customers (hospitals and physicians)wanting to pay less for products,” analysts wrote.